Just when you think it's impossible to love Phoenix any more than you already do, they bring out buddies Daft Punk to help close their first headlining Madison Square Garden show. That happened. And it turned an already triumphant gig into a thing of legend; who knows when (if?!) these two vital forces of musical good will ever be on the same stage again. As Phoenix's touring for Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix winds down over the next few months, the Garden gig marked the latest high point for a band who, after more than a decade of albums and shows, finally clicked on a massive level over the last two years.

In a lot of ways, this was the Ultimate Phoenix Show. They played every song you could wish for. They sounded tighter and more muscular than ever. The lighting was pitch perfect. The crowd was big and excitable. This was not just another gig, and the band treated it as such. They will never play Madison Square Garden for the first time again-- an obvious statement, but also a necessary one.

When I spoke with Phoenix leader Thomas Mars about another recent high-water mark-- winning a Grammy award earlier this year-- he said, "It's weird because it's very nice, but you feel some sadness to it, too. It's hard to enjoy the moment." That same sort of self-reflexive melancholy lingers in Phoenix's songs, and especially Mars' voice. It makes them a lot less shameless than other MSG titans like Coldplay or U2. So when they blast past those emotions at the pounding apexes of songs like "Armistice", "Lasso", and "Lisztomania", the good feeling is a bit more realistic and hard-earned. After gradually moving up in popularity over the last ten years, it doesn't seem like Phoenix are catering to arenas as much as arenas are catering to Phoenix. (The same could be said for the band's exacting commercial placement.)

A little more on the Daft Punk appearance: These two French exports go back a ways-- Phoenix guitarist Laurent Brancowitz was in an indie rock band called Darlin' with Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo before he joined Phoenix and Bangalter and Homem-Christo came up with Daft Punk. So while the sight of the two robot heads toiling behind a big synth and other, unseen equipment was shocking, it wasn't some cheap or opportunistic thrill. And when the two acts mashed up "If I Ever Feel Better" with "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" and "Around the World" live and then did a deep-bass version of "1901", they automatically made the hundreds (thousands?) of other Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix remixes more or less obsolete. When they wrapped up the song (which saw Mars singing in the middle of the arena before running back to the stage), everyone took a bow. Phoenix were smiling. And you have to imagine Daft Punk were pretty giddy under those metal heads, too.

Dirty Projectors [Madison Square Garden; 9:00 p.m.]

__Dirty Projectors by Will Deitz__

Unsurprisingly, Dave Longstreth's crippled duck walk does not really translate at the Garden. Surprisingly, though, Dirty Projectors' brainy-- and at times willingly annoying-- take on classic rock, prog, and R&B sounded crisp inside the big space, which was about 60 percent full by the time they went on. Perhaps their music needs that room to parse itself a bit before it hits the ears, as an uninitiated listener may think band members are simultaneously playing entirely different songs. Even though the group's last album, Bitte Orca, is their most immediately likable, they'll never be able to headline Madison Square Garden without taking an unlikely musical turn. So their set was an intriguing, out-of-place curio. During some songs, several members banged their heads with force. They were the only people in the venue doing so.

Wavves [Madison Square Garden; 8 p.m.]

__Wavves by Will Deitz__

In June, I saw Wavves at the 250-capacity Knitting Factory in Brooklyn. Last night he played to an audience potentially 72 times that size-- though, in reality, it was probably only about 20 times that size when the band went on at 8 p.m. Still, that's not a bad four-month trajectory. At the Knit, Wavves frontman Nathan Williams played his bratty songs (which were great) and did his bratty banter with equally bratty drummer Billy Hayes and bassist Stephen Pope (which was terrible). Seemingly scared straight by the Garden, the banter was cut down to a minimum, aided by the absence of Hayes, who was replaced by a less talky (and talented) stick man. So it was all songs, no bullshit. But the sound was muddy. And while Williams can break out a Cobain-esque wail from time to time, his songs don't have the big-time stakes of Nirvana's. Big stakes can be important in a big venue. That said, "Idiot"-- a song about how Williams is an idiot-- sounded right at home crashing off the walls and empty seats.

Marnie Stern [Cake Shop; 6 p.m.]

__Marnie Stern by Will Deitz__

It has been suggested that Marnie Stern may find a career in comedy more lucrative than a career in music. To be clear, I like Marnie's riffs and yelps, and I especially like watching dudes try to head bang to her flipping time signatures because they invariably end up looking like seizure victims. But, at the same time, Stern is what someone's grandmother would call "a pisser." I mean that in a nice way.

During her Terrorbird day party set yesterday afternoon, she mic-checked with, "Nobody been in my vageen for so long" and "vagina 1, 2, 3." While testing some equipment, she said, "Should I try the other box? [giggle] I said 'box.'" Her bandmates call her a "diva with a little 'd'" because, according to Stern, she "just doesn't like to walk around a lot." When feedback started to ring out, Marnie claimed the sound represented "the desperation of the lack of peen in my body." Also, for the record, she "just doesn't understand water." Maybe stand-up could be her side gig-- you know, when she's not doing her guitar hero thing. I mean, she's funnier than John Mayer.